Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion

There are many lessons to learn from today’s Gospel. We see Jesus making the ultimate sacrifice, while never losing faith in his father, but something that catches my attention in the reading is Peter’s actions. Peter, who promised Jesus that he would never deny him, denied Jesus three times. Nowadays, we tend to put religion on the back seat as it is not trendy to talk about God. We deny our religion because it contradicts with what society expects of us.  The world has become too focused on material things and appearances; we are constantly worried about how others see us and what they think of us. We see people regularly posting selfies, vacation pictures, and fancy meals on social media. I must say, I am guilty of this as well. We only seem to turn to faith when we are in need of God’s help. We have shied away from sharing our religious beliefs and being transparent about our faith when things are going well in life. But as soon as we are in a difficult situation, we turn to prayer and beg God to intervene and turn things around for us. Peter, one of Jesus’ closest disciples denied Jesus because he wasn’t willing to deal with the consequences that admitting he was one of Jesus’ followers would bring to him. He denied him although he loved him because he didn’t want to affect his own image by being associated with Jesus. This teaches us that we should not only practice our faith in private, but instead display our faith and beliefs proudly around others. In my opinion, practicing your faith in public does not only mean walking around with a Bible or rosary, but behaving the way Jesus would in the 21st Century. As we navigate through life in this big city that is a melting pot of nations, races, and religions, we should always keep in mind WWJD…What would Jesus do?

Jaime Chauca
Director of Enterprise Systems

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At 1:00 PM (ET) we invite you to click the link below to join our Zoom of the Stations of the Cross. Our program will include many readings written from the perspective of witnesses who were there during Jesus' passion. All are welcome.